WARDSVILLE -- Mike DeMilia has been wanting to host a varsity boys wrestling tournament at Blair Oaks for quite some time. It finally came to fruition Saturday.
The Falcons and their coach welcomed five quality programs to Blair Oaks High School for a dual tournament, which included four teams ranked in the top 10 in their respective classes.
“We do the JV boys and the varsity girls tournament, and we do a youth club tournament,” DeMilia said. “But this is our first time running a dual tournament. I was a little nervous about it, but it actually went pretty well.”
Blair Oaks, ranked No. 11 in Class 2 by MissouriWrestling.com, finished the day with a 2-3 record, starting the day with a 41-24 win against Class 1 No. 9 Fatima and ending the day with a 51-27 win against Class 2 No. 8 Kirksville.
The Falcons dropped three close duals to Class 2 No. 6 Sullivan (34-30), Class 1 No. 3 Centralia (40-33) and Class 2 No. 14 Savannah (31-21).
“To get the five teams that we got here was pretty amazing,” DeMilia said. “We saw Savannah at the first tournament of the year, but we only had one-third of our team available then. We saw Kirksville once, and Centralia, we were supposed to dual them but it was canceled because of winter weather.
“To get people from all across the state was part of it. We wanted to get as many Class 2 teams as possible, but adding Fatima and Centralia was good competition.”
Blair Oaks saw some tough battles right from the start. In matchups of returning state qualifiers, Fatima’s Nolan Laux won a 6-2 decision against Easton DeMilia at 120 pounds, while Brady Kerperin of Blair Oaks got a late escape to edge Trevor Herzing for a 6-5 win at 215.
“You can have a bunch of ‘feel good’ matches and go pin everybody and win 75-0. It helps your confidence, but it’s a false confidence,” Mike DeMilia said. “If you can go out there against good guys, it gains you confidence for those bubble matches in districts.”
Excluding forfeits, Blair Oaks won 25-of-44 matches Saturday. Of those 44 matches, 21 went the full six minutes. Of the 19 losses, nine were by decision.
“We talk about that all the time when we have duals, the key in a lot of close duals is who can get the bonus points,” DeMilia said. “If you can stay off your back, that’s the biggest thing.”
Easton DeMilia finished the day with a 4-1 record, picking up his 150th career win with a pin in the Falcons’ third dual against Centralia.
“He’s wrestled a lot of matches,” Mike DeMilia said of his son. “He’s not 150-2, but he’s had longevity, wrestling a lot of matches and winning a lot of matches. And he’s done it against good competition.”
Jackson Finke went 5-0 at 157, moving his season record back above the .500 mark. He won two matches by decision, one by major decision, one by fall and one by forfeit.
“His record is not indicative of how good of a season he is having,” DeMilia said. “He’s wrestled a lot of tough competition. … He’s wrestling at a way higher level than he was two months ago.”
Whit Nichols also went 5-0 at 144 with three pins, a win by major decision and a win by forfeit.
“Whit’s been solid all year,” DeMilia said. “Every loss he has is to a top-level wrestler, and he’s still striving to beat those kids that have gotten him.”
Cole Peters won all five matches at 285 for the Falcons, winning three matches by decision, one by injury default and one by forfeit. He improved his record to 33-5.
“There are some advantages to being a little smaller (at 285),” DeMilia said. “I think his gas tank is a little better than a lot of those guys. He just understands how to wrestle.”
Doug Blaha was the fourth Falcon to finish the day at 5-0, putting him at 38 wins this season. Blaha won three matches by fall and two by forfeit.
Kaiden Caudle had a 3-2 record at 138 with a pin and two wins by forfeit, while Kerperin won both matches by decision at 215. Brooks Nichols had a 2-3 record with a win by decision and a win by forfeit at 150.
Nate Casey went 1-4 at 132, Gage Leffert was 1-4 at 175, Chris Utterback had a 1-2 record at 165, Carson Rustemeyer was 1-1 at 215 and Jax Luebbering dropped both matches at 113 to round out the Falcons’ lineup, which was typically open at three weight classes in each dual.
“We had a couple guys who were dinged up and we had a couple open spots,” DeMilia said. “But at the end of the day, you can only control what’s happening in the circle. We did that for the most part today.”
Savannah and Sullivan each went 4-1, but Savannah took first place due to its head-to-head win against the Eagles. Centralia was 3-2, Kirksville tied Blair Oaks at 2-3 and Fatima finished 0-5.
Blair Oaks (8-17) wrestles Wednesday at Pleasant Hill against the Class 2 No. 4 Roosters, Chillicothe and Raymore-Peculiar.
“We just want to get a look at them,” DeMilia said of Pleasant Hill, which is also in the Falcons’ district. “It’s also another top-level team that we want to compete against.”